From pyroclastic compounds to natural hormones and common drugs, this site features detailed chemical information on various molecular compounds. Each month a new molecule is added to the list. Molecule pages connect to either a University Chemistry Department or commercial site in the United Kingdom, the United States, or anywhere in the world. Most descriptions include a history of use, chemical structure, properties, reactivity, and current research and development regarding the respective molecule. Site visitors are encouraged to contribute a molecule description. Many links are offered to contributor institutions and related Molecule of the Month collections.

Intended for grade levels:

High (9-12)

College (13-14)

College (15-16)

Graduate / Professional

Type of resource:

Text:

Ref. material

Subject:

Chemistry

Technical requirements:

You will need the CHIME plug-in. There are up to four page formats available for viewing the molecules. It is recommended to use Netscape 3.0+ or Internet Explorer 3.0+ for these pages, since a lot of the most recent features of HTML are used. Note: Netscape 4.0 appears to have a problem with the Chime plug-in, so you'll need to use the later versions such as 4.04/6. Some of these pages contain 'hyperactive' 3D images in formats such as pdb (protein database). You can rotate and manipulate these files in real time if you have the correct set-up, and this depends upon the format of the page. These pages are written in basic HTML, and no add-ons or plug-ins are required to view the page. Any 3D structures will be available as hyperlinks to the appropriate files (e.g. a pdb or mol file). To view these files you will need a 3D viewer program such as Rasmol, MacMolecule2/PCMolecule2, or WebLab Viewer. C: This is a system which works using a plug-in for Netscape 2.0+ or MSIE 3.0+ called CHIME. Your browser will need to support java applets too.